The Weaponization of Children

Amen.

Posted by StephenB at July 31, 2006 8:55 PM

How long did it take for the new media to spank the liars of the press over this? Pretty quickly. Just about 15 years ago, a handful of people were exposing press biases, but for the most part, they were being ignored, and now, more of us are on to them. War speeds the invention of needed technologies, and I would include the need for intelligence, whether overt or covert. If we were to continue to believe the lies of the press, we would be doomed.

My husband, who never analyzes anything except the Super Doppler Radar can even tell when the network hacks attempt to manipulate him.

My 19 year old daughter noted the curious absence of Israeli casualties. Today we sifted through the "Milking it" article and the follow up "Who is this guy?' and she was quite alarmed by this dead child porn.

She found all the participants in this sham disgusting, and couldn't understand why the press was "in on it."

This morning, while watching the CBS morning News, I noticed how the "innocent civilians rioting in Beirut and elsewhere were all carrying Hezbo flags. Not Lebanese flags, Hezbo flags. At that point I just left the sound off and let the pictures speak for themselves.

Posted by Jauhara al Kafirah at July 31, 2006 9:34 PM

Perhaps the "bloody shirt" tactic is necessary for a world hardened by right-wing rhetoric and bias. You're quick to pounce upon an unpopular religion, and would think twice before taking on a force such as the ADL; who can say or do anything they wish by dangling their shredded holocaust victims before the world many countless times. They, too, see the value of exhuming corpses for propaganda purposes.

A good point, this "compassion fatigue." Yes, rhetoric pounded incessantly has to have a numbing effect, and anyone who has sufficient years under their belt will have naturally succumbed under the onslaught. One loses their infantile objectivity to adult cynicism and bias very quickly, particularly in today's culture.

There is a lot of supposition as to the value of children in Muslim tradition. We have much more imagination in the exploitation of them, not even waiting until they are a corpse before 'dangling' them in commercial ventures, advertising before them in order to harvest them for future commerce, or even parading them before the media for commercial purposes. A corpse is a corpse, but a living child is a human being, with certain unalienable rights. A corpse is a non-entity with none, except in the mind of the frivolous and sentimental.

It is quite acceptable and fashionable to make claims that Muslims herd their own into buildings to be bombed, yet it is unheard of to consider that power-hungry politicians and financiers could do the same in New York in 2001. No, we are more than human in this respect! Perhaps the tactics seen in the Muslim world were learned from watching the west... it all depends on whom you listen to, it would seem.

I think there is more than a subtle hint of racism apparent here, but it's not anti-semitic, so it's okay.

Posted by Alan at July 31, 2006 11:09 PM

I did see the EU Referendum link last night, and I heard Rush Limbaugh
discuss it today, before I read your article. I'm glad this
information is getting out there. The terrorists may be playing the
Western MSM like a bluegrass banjo, but fortunately they no longer have
a monopoly on information.

I commented on another blog a few days ago that, while the wanton
murder of civilians on the other side has been sadly commonplace in war
(in all times and cultures going back to antiquity), we are seeing
something truly new here. I cannot recall any previous instance in
history where combatants deliberately facilitate the death of civilians
on their own side just to score propaganda points.

Posted by rickl at July 31, 2006 11:36 PM

media bias:

virtually all european newspapers except the Germans, and especially cnn are harping on the "outrage" over 16 kids supposedly killed in a building collapse that supposedly was due to an Israeli bomb. I wish some kind of forensics and israeli bomb sight video would clear this up.

every forth sentence at CNN has the answer though.
The arab world is outraged over the killings at Qana/ its a huge turning point. etc etc. repeated every two minutes or so.

Yet far more children are killed in Iraq every two days to three days , and have been dying at this rate for a month or so. killed by fellow moslems

And cartoons written for a childrens book produced riots and outrage for months, hardly a serious affair compared to children, but an episode which sets the bar for outrage.

these cartoons had been drawn by someone not islamic

What CNN has to do is to finish the sentence: the arab world is outraged over the killing of children by jews

and then there will be truth to it

I think there is a hint of anti semitism thoughout europe and the middle east, and at CNN

Posted by falafel at August 1, 2006 1:01 AM

I don't see why murdering civilians for the sake of the photo op should be so hard to believe.
There's one single reason why I think this. It happens to be the same single reason why I don't believe that Jews and Arabs can currently share one society: That reason is the phenomenon of Honor Killing.
You are talking about a society where the brutal abuse and/or murder of women by their fathers/brothers is a condoned and practiced response for dealing "problematic" female behavior such as allowing yourself to be raped or going out in public with a male who isn't approved by your male relatives.
It is unjust that we outside the Muslim world generally ignore this problem. It is nonsensical that we ignore what this indicates about Islamic fundamentalist groups like Hezbala. We do it because we don't want to face the size of the monster we're dealing with. We want to believe that our estimation of human life is a universal value. It isn't and the writing was on the wall in the form or untold thousands of murdered women - way way way before Al Dura or Qana.

Posted by Lauren at August 1, 2006 4:20 AM

That was gut wrenching. Thank you for posting it, though...

Posted by Kip Watson at August 1, 2006 5:41 AM
"They, too, see the value of exhuming corpses for propaganda purposes."

Alan, we don't need to manufacture victims. Or reuse the ones we do have.

Posted by Alan Kellogg at August 1, 2006 5:41 AM

"I think there is more than a subtle hint of racism apparent here, but it's not anti-semitic, so it's okay"

Why, Alan, should that surprise you, given that the Hezz started this war on the basis of eliminating a race?

Posted by Buddy Larsen at August 1, 2006 7:08 AM

The intrinsic value of human life to us in the western world is boundless. After all, which of us, when looking down at our newborn son or daughter contentedly resting in a basinette with thumb in mouth, hasn't dreamed that he or she just may be a doctor, lawyer, or successful writer some day?

The other side of the equation, specifically, how a child's life is viewed in the eastern world, is perhaps best depicted by Marlon Brando's commentary of his vaccination efforts toward children in a small Vietnamese children in the movie "Apocalypse Now." Brando relayed how he & other personnel had innoculated some village children to prevent them from incurring diseases inherent in that part of the world. Upon returning to the village, they saw the arms of all the children had been cut off & were thrown in a pile for the "compassionate" American soldiers to see. Message? Keep your western mentality to yourselves.

Certainly the movie was fiction, but the rationale was all too real and is the mindset today in the muslim world. Remember the photos of about a year ago of a small Arab child dressed in customary garb, face cherubic, but barely physically able to hold the automatic rifle placed in its arms? I believe the caption read something to the effect that said child was willing to die for Allah...just like Daddy.

Sure, the last three words in the paragraph above were my interpretation, but what other inference could be made? What parent would want their child to be exposed to the concept of violence/war? Then again, I recall the "Hitler Youth." Train (a.k.a. brain-wash) 'em young & you've got an army of goons who'll do anything for you later in life.

Talking heads will not cease to expound the atrocities of war, negligent to the fact that they're feasting on a well-prepared meal of bias, propoganda and truth twisting. However, their unabashed efforts to spew forth their partisan sentiments is constued as mere verbal projectile vomiting by more informed minds.

Posted by Jack at August 1, 2006 7:38 AM

Alan, am I to take it that you are making equal the act of advertising to Muslim children and dragging around their 'non-entity' corpses?

Posted by Cindi at August 1, 2006 7:43 AM

Where is all the outrage of the thousands of children killed by terrorist suicide bombings evey day?

I'm sick and tired of the general media ignoring the truth because it gets in the way of them saving us from ourselves because they think know better.

They're nothing more than dispicible ratings whores.

Posted by MarkH at August 1, 2006 9:03 AM

poor misunderstood hezbollacs!

Posted by alanneedsahug at August 1, 2006 9:04 AM

Wonderful writing. Thanks.

Posted by Skookumchuk at August 1, 2006 9:41 AM

"It is quite acceptable and fashionable to make claims that Muslims herd their own into buildings to be bombed, yet it is unheard of to consider that power-hungry politicians and financiers could do the same in New York in 2001."

This sentence tells you all you need to know about Alan's state of mind. Taken another sip of the Jonestown Punch, have you, Alan? Why don't you take the next step and repeat the B.S. that the "Jews" were all told not to report to work on 9/11/01? You know you want to. Just let the conspiracy-mongering juices flow. If you're going to tell lies, you might as well go all the way. Twit.

Posted by waltj at August 1, 2006 10:01 AM

Cindi,
Alan is just repeating similar nonsense that I've personally heard from a 'sociology' wackademic professor. He made the assinine statement that mass advertising was equivalent to his daughter being raped (I have a young daughter the same age as his). When I challenged him on the incredible moral abusdity of this statement he quickly tried to retract the statement, not so much because he didn't actually believe it, but probably because he was too much a coward and wimp to answer my challenge.

Posted by phil g at August 1, 2006 10:39 AM

Phil g, I was just making sure he meant to say what I thought he did before whacking his mole but good. You did it instead, though, so thanks.

So much crap from the delusional left to wade through, so little inclination.

Good post, Gerard.

Posted by Cindi at August 1, 2006 1:30 PM

This post is platonic in its quality, Gerard.

We will look back on these words in the future to remember these terrible hours and days. It shines the light on what animates the souls of those who wish to wipe us, our memories, and those of everyone we have ever known and loved from the fabric of mankind. They will not be satisfied until the world is as if we never existed here in the West, and we are only now realizing that they will never surrender, they can only die.

It's hell to live in interesting times.

"the horror, the horror..."

Posted by mezzrow at August 1, 2006 5:52 PM

Richard at EUReferendum.com is being attacked by "The Guardian"
he's just posted:

....And, while majoring on the "time stamps" (ignoring the other evidence), Greenslade (like others of this blog's critics) has not noticed that none of the agencies have declared that the "time stamps" are actually wrong... merely that time stamps in general could be misleading. Nor have any of the agencies volunteered their own time lines.

I must have got something right....Richard, EURef.

As soon as story broke, I commented at JOM that LSMers are rushing to name an award they can bestow immediately to establish their credibility.

The AP gave awards and cash bonuses to their people. LGF posted the leaked letter.

New Media is working to put together forensic proof. Confederate Yankee reports on the refrigerated trucks that were storing bodies in Tyre to be same trucks rushed to Qana. Problem is Red Cross could not confirm the burial of the Tyre bodies in Tyre. One of the trucks contained 27. Red Cross released count of bodies from Qana as 28.

May guests on network shows and CNN & MSNBC in live broadcasts surprise their hosts by getting some of these facts out.

There may even be some semi-Alans that will learn some truths about who and what the enemy is.

Posted by larwyn at August 2, 2006 7:13 AM

I wish I could see this piece on the op-ed pages of the WSJ and the WaPo, or, for that matter, ANY newspaper.

Brilliant, Gerard.

Posted by Buck at August 2, 2006 8:58 AM

The obvious retort is "We wouldn't be waving the dead children if you didn't kill them!".

You have to respond to this even before somebody says it. Waving the bloody shirt works. It works well. It will continue to work. It can be countered, but not eliminated. You can't claim the kids aren't dead. Once the kids are dead, using them for propaganda is only rational, from a certain point of view.

The counter to the bloody shirt is to enumerate the facts, be very careful with your missiles and bombs, wave your own bloody shirts, show the video of the missiles coming out of the shelter. Every time you do that you give away a little of your own intelligence capabilities. That's part of the game they play with us.

Posted by Warren at August 4, 2006 7:14 AM

As usual, any deviation from the realm of the politically expedient and correct draws the typical response from the masses so easily swayed by rhetoric designed to placate and confuse.

Socialist programmers require a public that is gullible, and there are many instances throughout history where this has been a factor in the establishment of totalitarian governments and regimes. Looks like I've hit on a few here, although there might be one or two that are actually open to another viewpoint, and not of the pin-headed ultra-right. Dictators prefer their cannon fodder to be at least a half-bubble off plumb.

To the idiots, I say; your reward is coming. To those who actually have a will and mind of their own, my sympathy -- you still have the idiots with you... and they outnumber us.

Posted by Alan at August 5, 2006 3:59 PM

So... 9/11 was the photo op of champions?

LOL you guys are so utterly removed from reality that one almost feels sorry for you.

On the other hand, the evils that are spawned throughout the world from the ignorance of the american right are so horrendous, that compassion is not really the first thing that leaps to mind when reading your venomous drivel.

Posted by Kald at August 5, 2006 4:31 PM